International Women’s Day has been observed since the early 1900s -- with the first “National Women’s Day” held in the United States in 1909, before women even had the right to vote.

Today, it's become an official holiday in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam, and Zambia -- just to name a few. In many of these countries, IWD is celebrated like Mother’s Day and children give small gifts to their mothers or grandmothers.

While women have undoubtedly made huge strides since the first celebration of a “Women’s Day” -- unfortunately, we are still far from achieving perfect equality. In the United States, women still don’t receive equal pay for equal work nor are they proportionately represented in politics.

On a global scale, women consistently receive less access to education and health care. Not to mention there are still many places where women do not have rights to their own bodies and are victims of regular domestic violence.

But this doesn't have to be the case. Women are powerful in ways beyond measure and great strides are being made.

Did you know that on average, women invest 80% of their income in their families? This means that not only does a loan help a woman, but her entire family as well. This means a small loan could ultimately enable her kids to go to school, or get proper health care.

At Kiva, we strongly believe that microfinance is an invaluable tool to empower women and change their place in society. When you loan to a woman, you not only empower her economically, you help her model gender equality for future generations.

If a daughter grows up in a home where her mother is respected and justly compensated for her work, her future actions and mindset will be significantly different than if her mother worked grueling hours for unequal pay and had no influence in family decisions. Similarly, if a son is brought up by a mother who contributes equally to family income, he will likely show more respect for women in his own actions. This is how women's empowerment happens -- through small changes passed from generation to generation.

COMIXMUL is one particular Kiva field partner making strides to empower women -- focusing exclusively on women borrowers in rural Honduras. Now with over 26,000 members, COMIXMUL provides women with much more than just financial products, including extensive educational programs that allow them to get a leg up on growing their business, and medical services that often times are these women’s only option for quality healthcare.

Nokeira is a single 29 year-old woman who had to drop out after primary school due to a lack of resources. She received a $625 Kiva loan through COMIXMUL to buy fertilizer, manure, and fumigation pumps to maintain healthy coffee crops on the land left to her from her father.

The Mahashakti Foundation is another one of Kiva’s partners that works exclusively with women in India’s low-income state of Odisha. There, 91% of the population lives in villages and 39% live in tribal communities where the average income is less than $1 per day. Mahashakti also provides clients with health and life micro-insurance, health care options, livelihood development services, water and sanitation services, and food security programs for a holistic approach to well-being.

A women's borrower group speaking with a Mahashakti loan officer.

We are so proud to work with partners who not only provide loans, but also invaluable training and even healthcare that will radically change borrowers’ quality of life.

If you aren't already convinced of the opportunities microfinance provides women -- here is one of our favorite and most inspiring stories:

Angela is a 30-year-old divorced mother of two living in Zambia. In July 2011, she received a $5,000 loan from Kiva partner Zoona to open her own mobile money transactions kiosk. Not only has she already paid back her loan, but the demand for her service was so high that she was able to create a job and open a second teller window at her kiosk. Angela’s increased income from her new business also allowed her to bring her children back to live with her (they had been living with her parents 12 hours away). She also had extra capital to build a roof over her kiosk so her customers wouldn't have to stand out in the sun while waiting in line.

Angela outside her Zoona kiosk.

It's stories like Angela’s that remind us why microfinance is so important for women. All it took was a $5,000 loan, and not only was she able to pay it back, but she has already further grown her business and improved her whole family's quality of life.

Of the 511,000 loans we've processed on Kiva, 74.6% of them have been to women borrowers. To encourage your International Women's Day celebration, we are currently offering a $25 FREE TRIAL loan to all new Kiva users when you loan to a woman. Click here to redeem your free trial.

Comments

Hi Emily...I teach 6th grade geography in Malden Massachusetts. This is my 4th year doing a fundraising project with my students based on social responsibility. Students reflect on their obligation and wny it is so important to contribute and be responsible to others world wide. We then do a unit focusing on women micro-entrepreneurs in Africa. I tried last year to skype with a micro finance company that funded loans through Kiva. My hope was to have the students connect with someone that could truly explain the process and importance of providing loans to developing countries and how a small loan could impact so greatly changing lives and communities for the better. Unfortunately, the person I made arrangements with was no longer to be found when I was ready to complete our unit of study. I have been in contact with various people from Kiva BUT still have not made a connection. If you OR someone you know can take the time to chat via Skype about your experiences working with Kiva and the recipients that would be AWESOME! Any direction or information you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks Robin DeSantis

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A native of southern California, Emily is a recent graduate from Santa Clara University where she studied Economics and Spanish Studies. The highlight of her college experience was the semester she spent abroad in Granada, Spain. She knew she wanted to pursue a career in economic development after reading Half the Sky. Emily will be joining the Marketing and Communications team as a Blog and Social Media Intern and is especially excited to find new and creative ways to spread Kiva’s work to more people. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, listening to country music, and re-watching Friends episodes for the millionth time.

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To encourage conversation and build community on Kiva's blogs, we've made commenting accessible and viewable by anyone visiting Kiva. Given this high visibility, we ask that you abide by the following guidelines when posting a comment:

Comments should be relevant to the content of specific blog posts and are not to be used for self-promotion or to advertise or solicit.

Please refrain from using profanity or language that may be seen as degrading or disrespectful.

Commenters are expected to accurately and honestly represent themselves. False identities will not be tolerated.

Kiva reserves the right to remove comments in violation of this policy. See Kiva's Terms of Use Agreement for more information on user-generated content.

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